NPD employee defending dissertation

13/02/2013
The trial lecture and disputation will take place at the geological institute in Oslo on Friday, 15 February. This will make Van Thi Hai Pham the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate’s (NPD’s) first employee with a doctorate in CO2 injection.

The title of the doctoral work is “CO2 storage – simulations for forecasting the effects and behavior of injection in geological formations”. These are important elements when CO2 is injected into the subsurface, either for storage or improved oil recovery.

Van has worked for the NPD since 1 September 2011, and she has completed the doctorate she had already started when she began working in the Directorate. She has worked full-time while studying.

Among other things, Van uses her expertise in the work to map possible storage locations for CO2 on the Norwegian shelf, and she was part of the group that prepared an overview of possible CO2 storage locations in the North Sea and Norwegian Sea. They are now working to map possible CO2 storage sites in the Barents Sea. She also follows up to ensure that resources on the Troll field, both the oil and gas, are safeguarded in the best possible manner by the licensees. Last, but not least, she also gets to use her expertise in the NPD’s work on reservoir modelling and simulation.

Van Thi Hai Pham came to Norway from her native country, Vietnam, to study nearly eight years ago. She completed a master’s degree at NTNU (the Norwegian University of Science and Technology) in Trondheim and became a reservoir engineer. She then moved to Oslo and started her PhD on CO2 storage.

The doctoral work consists of five scientific articles. Three have already been published, one is being printed and the final is now expected.